Deux-Rivières and Matawa

Upon arriving in Deux-Rivières, a small community located in Renfrew County, Highway 17 narrowed and seemed to plunged right into the Ottawa River. The River was pretty wide and we felt like on a small island. Except for a seasonal ferry access to Québec and an abandoned gas station/ convenience store, there wasn’t much. The scenery was beautiful though: the grey asphalt matched the dark stormy sky, but contrasted with the deep blue of the River.

A few kilometers further, we stopped in Matawa, a town whose name means “Meeting of the Waters”. It used to be an important place due to its location along the voyageur’s canoe route from Montreal to the Great Lakes. If Pembroke is the city of murals, Matawa is the city of wooden statues: we spotted at least 10 of them depicting historical figures, scattered along the main street.

We headed to a local café to sip a hot chocolate (served with small marshmallows to dip in!), waiting for the storm to pass. And off we went, back to Deep River.

13 Comments

What a coincidence (or not considering my interest in anything Canadian at the moment)! Today I read a piece by Margaret Atwood, entitled “Travels Back”, in which she describe a poetry reading tour that started with a journey on the Highway 17 and a stop in Mattawa…
Nice to have pics to illustrate my reading 🙂

Salut Zhu,
I have been playing “catch up”. I really enjoyed this trip!There is a quiet beauty in all these villages. When D & I come back to Canada,we want to rent a car and just go exploring like this.I love it 🙂
See you soon, chérie.

yummm. hot chocolate!
does deux-rivieres means two rivers? or does it mean god’s rivers (the latin deus, italian dio and the spanish dios are– in my poor little mind– so similar to the french word deux)!
i’m being silly, of course i know deux is the number two. but still… whoever made languages did their best to confuse people…